Health

Are allergies our best defense against biohazards?

As common as they are, the origins of allergies are poorly understood. The prevailing theory is that they evolved as a method of defense against macroparasites — like ticks and worms — that are now triggered by a much wider variety of causes. However, a group of researchers from Yale think we’re looking at it…

io9 Tim Barribeau

The Lost Civilizations That Pioneered Skull Surgery

People have been punching holes in each other’s skulls, for medicinal purposes or magic, since at least the middle part of the Stone Age. Now, researchers have found what may be the first evidence this complex surgical operation took place in the lost civilizations in the Sahara and Nubia, too. The surgical procedure known as…

io9 Charles Choi

Eating Healthiness Around the World, Visualized

If we are what we eat, then plenty of us are massive, walking cheeseburgers. But this data visualization shows how average eating health varies around the world—and how it changes over the course of a full day. It was put together by Massive Health, who offer an app called Eatery which allows people to use…

Health Jamie Condliffe

Pakistani baby born with six legs recovering well, following removal of extra limbs

Doctors at Pakistan’s National Institue of Child Health say that a six-legged infant born earlier this month is alive and recovering well, after surgeons removed the baby’s extra limbs in an eight-hour surgery last Thursday. It’s almost hard to believe that the child, who appears otherwise normal in the post-surgery photograph featured up top, was…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez

Would you drop $10,000 a year to stop yourself from getting HIV?

Thanks to advances in fighting HIV/AIDS over the last decades, these diseases are no longer the death sentences they once were — and some drugs offer the chance to protect against infection in the first place. Considering the huge price associated with these pills, would it make sense to do so? And for whom? The…

io9 Tim Barribeau

Cocaine abuse may actually accelerate brain aging

All drugs affect your brain differently… that’s assuming, of course, that these drugs have a brain to affect in the first place. https://gizmodo.com/this-is-what-your-brain-on-drugs-really-looks-like-5878523 New research reveals that the grey matter of chronic cocaine users actually melts away at an accelerated rate, suggesting that the brain of a cocaine addict ages faster than that of someone…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez

What Really Happens When You Swallow Your Gum?

You’ve heard the warnings: If you swallow gum, it will stay in your digestive system for nearly a decade. Which would mean there’s a decent chance you’ve got some hanging out in your gut right now. If you look at its ingredients—a delicious mix of indigestible compounds—it certainly seems possible. And if you look at…

Health Rachel Swaby

Childhood Violence Causes Premature DNA Ageing

People sometimes quip that children who have a tough time growing up are old beyond their years. New research, however, suggests that could be literally true: children who have suffered violence at a young age, it appears, actually suffer from premature ageing of their DNA. At the end of all the chromosomes found in our…

Health Jamie Condliffe

Cocaine Literally Rots Your Brain

Cocaine turns anybody that takes it into a bit of a douche—we all know what. But while there’s plenty of evidence that the drug affects heart function and screws up the brain’s natural reward system, here’s another reason to avoid it: scientists have found that it, quite literally, rots your brain. A study carried out…

Health Jamie Condliffe

American Airlines to air anti-vaccination programming in-flight (UPDATE)

Vaccines are important. Very important. https://gizmodo.com/how-vaccines-saved-the-world-5840419 Update: American Airlines has announced that the Meryl Dorey audio interview has been cancelled and will not air. This reportedly applies to the printed material, as well. Good on American Airlines for making the right call on this one. So we were surprised to hear that American Airlines is…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez

Here’s How Much Body Parts Cost on the Black Market

If you were ever curious as to how much body parts can fetch on the black market, Medical Transcription created a snazzy infographic to show you. Some parts are shockingly cheap! Like would you want a new shoulder or a new iPad? Both cost 500 bucks. Other organs are prohibitively expensive, like a kidney. That…

Health Casey Chan

Mystery Killer Preying on Vietnamese Youth

A mysterious illness that begins as a high fever with little appetite and spreads to a rash on the hands and feet is responsible for the loss of 17 lives, so far, in an impoverished Vietnamese district. 171 others have also been sickened but have been able to recover with proper and timely medical care.…

Health Molly Oswaks

Blame underage drinking on Bollywood!

It seems that every country has their own version of pinning a moral panic on popular culture. Be it music, video games, or film, the behavior of fictional characters is often linked to that of adolescents. At this year’s World Congress of Cardiology in Dubai, researchers will be presenting a link between movies and underage…

io9 Tim Barribeau

Exercise Will Help You Quit Smoking

If you’re trying to stop smoking, get down to the gym. A new study has shown that people who exercise are 55 per cent more likely to quit—and 43 per cent less likely to relapse into smoking, too. The study, carried out in Taiwan, examined healthcare data from 434,190 people in order to reach the…

Health Jamie Condliffe

Depressing Necklace Measures How Much Air Pollution You’re Breathing In

Sure, air pollution might make for particularly stunning sunsets. But have you ever thought about the toll it takes on your body? You won’t have a choice after wearing RTI International’s MicroPEM—or personal exposure monitor—which measures the adverse affects of breathing in all that poison. Providing a direct correlation between pollution levels and how it…

Health Andrew Liszewski

Breast Cancer Is Actually Ten Different Diseases

For years, we’ve been treating breast cancer as a single disease. But a new study has reclassified it into ten separate sub-diseases, all with different genetic features—which could transform the way women are diagnosed and treated. The research, conducted at the University of British Columbia and published in Nature, analyzed the DNA and RNA of…

Health Jamie Condliffe

Is the dramatic rise in chin implants due to video chat?

The Wall Street Journal reports that the American Association of Plastic Surgeons has seen a meteoric rise in chin implants over the past year. The number of chin implants, where a silicon implant increases the size of the chin, grew 71% in 2011. That’s 20,680 chin implants total in the U.S. According to the WSJ:…

io9 Annalee Newitz

Why don’t we know more about the long-term effects of abortion?

Though abortion is one of the most contested medical practices in U.S. history, we know shockingly little about how this simple outpatient procedure affects women. There are almost no scientific studies on what happens to women who receive abortions, and even fewer on what happens to women who are unable to get them. The American…

io9 Annalee Newitz

Banish Shin Splints Forever With One Magical Exercise

The sun is out, the weather’s warm, and in a month or so you’re going to be parading around the beach nearly naked. Time to shed that winter weight. So you start running. But lo! Just as you start getting results, you also get pain. In your shins. It’s bad. Shin splints are one of…

Health Brent Rose

In 1941, jai alai-loving hillbillies were America’s future weapon against Hitler

In Captain America, a patriotic beanpole is buffed up with super-steroids and battles the Third Reich using his unconventional star-spangled shield. The following article from the December 1941 issue of the science and engineering magazine Mechanix Illustrated foresaw a similar destiny for real soldiers. This piece predicted that “super shock troops” juiced up on powerful…

io9 Cyriaque Lamar

Are allergies our best defense against biohazards?

The Lost Civilizations That Pioneered Skull Surgery

Eating Healthiness Around the World, Visualized

Pakistani baby born with six legs recovering well, following removal of extra limbs

Would you drop $10,000 a year to stop yourself from getting HIV?

Cocaine abuse may actually accelerate brain aging

What Really Happens When You Swallow Your Gum?

Childhood Violence Causes Premature DNA Ageing

Cocaine Literally Rots Your Brain

American Airlines to air anti-vaccination programming in-flight (UPDATE)

Here’s How Much Body Parts Cost on the Black Market

Mystery Killer Preying on Vietnamese Youth

Blame underage drinking on Bollywood!

Exercise Will Help You Quit Smoking

Depressing Necklace Measures How Much Air Pollution You’re Breathing In

Breast Cancer Is Actually Ten Different Diseases

Is the dramatic rise in chin implants due to video chat?

Why don’t we know more about the long-term effects of abortion?

Banish Shin Splints Forever With One Magical Exercise

In 1941, jai alai-loving hillbillies were America’s future weapon against Hitler

Do ‘Disclosure Day’ Prep With a Spielberg Sci-Fi Marathon

How to Watch the F1 Japanese GP 2026 on a Free Channel

Ranking 2016’s Superhero Debuts, 10 Years Later

Fourth Most Populous Country in the World Bans Most Social Media for Kids

How to watch UFC Fight Night Adesanya vs Pyfer live this Saturday

‘Steel Ball Run’ Will Return This Year…Eventually

‘The Mummy 4’ Is Getting the Family Back Together

JD Vance Says UFOs Are Actually Demons

Sonos Play Review: Call It a Comeback

Sonos Era 100 SL Review: The Cheapest Way Into Wired Sonos Sound

Asus ROG’s Massive Swift OLED Gaming Monitor Epitomizes Excess in the Best Way

The Ikea Varmblixt Smart Lamp Fills a Donut Hole in My Life

Nothing Headphone A vs. Headphone 1: Which Pair of ANC Wireless Headphones Wins?

Asus ROG’s Cetra Open Wireless Gaming Earbuds Might Be Better Than Wearing a Headset

Nintendo’s Talking Flower Is Annoying as Hell. I Love It

Level Lock Pro Review: As Good as a Secret Smart Lock Gets

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